The 61-year-old -- who goes by "Rick" -- has transformed C&S into the world's largest grocery wholesaler since taking the helm of the business in 1989, making him one of the 100 richest people in the world and the wealthiest man in New England after Connecticut hedge-fund manager Raymond T. Dalio, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The company had sales of $21.7 billion in 2012, distributing more than 95,000 products to 4,000 supermarkets from Maineto Hawaii. Cohen is the business' sole owner, Granger said. He has a net worth of $11.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg index.

So what is the billionaire like (other than private)? He's "smart, analytic and quantitatively driven" according to a Harvard professor who had written a case study on the company.